Event Shooting

Last night I had the opportunity to shoot an event - a first for me - and I learned a few things. As I'm still recovering from staying up way past my normal bedtime, hopefully this is coherent. I'll probably think of  few things later, once the cobwebs clear.

The Lighting Stinks

One of the first things I discovered is that the lighting really stinks inside, at least in the location I shot at. It was a mix of different temperature fluorescent bulbs, which you don't really notice until you try adjusting the lighting temperature. I quickly gave up and just shot auto, knowing that I would have to adjust each shot (that I wanted to keep) afterwards because it would be different in different parts of the room.

Photoshop is Probably Inevitable

It's Murphy's law of photography - if you're shooting a group large enough (a few of my shots were well over 20 people) someone in every shot is going to be blinking, looking away, or doing something goofy. Rather than try to get a big group of people to hold still and hang around for five photos, particularly when they'd rather be visiting, eating, or drinking with family and friends they haven't seen in 10 years or more, my goal is to get consistent lighting knowing that I'm going to be pasting a new set of eyes or a new face one someone ...

Related to this is the uninvited photo hog - someone who wants to be in as many pictures as possible. Luckily things can be easier than Photoshop. As I was setting up one shot, a relative whispered in my ear, "Can you not include her in the picture? She's not part of the family." Luckily it was just a matter of tightening the shot a bit and voila! She's gone. She'll never even know, but she had a smile on her face and there was no shouting match.

People with a Full Stomach Make Better Subjects

My goal was to wander around the room, get some candid shots of people and to try and be as unobtrusive as possible. There were also the obligatory pictures of everyone at each table - the group shot with some uncle who's managed to dribble dinner all over his tie. I noticed that before dinner not many people were very relaxed and I began to worry if I'd have to edit out shots of a family brawl. Turns out, people were probably just hungry. Once dinner had been served everyone seemed to relax and the photos got a lot better. It probably helped that a significant amount of wine had also been consumed ...


When it Rains, it Pours

I had set up an area to do some more formal sitting portraits and I had the impression that people would show up, get their pictures taken, and then be seated. Nope. Not many people were too interested in getting pictures done until after dinner and then everyone wanted pictures done with everyone else! Several times when I was assured that everyone and every group had already had their portrait done, two more groups of people would show up. The good thing was that I had eaten, too, so was not hungry and grumpy.

All in all, it was a fun experience. A lot of work, but fun. Having done this once in a lower-stress environment (it was a favor for  some good friends) gave me a chance to learn and experiment in a way that I would have been hesitant to do had it been a more formal business arrangement.